Conventional encoders encode samples with a fixed sampling interval in time. Data compression is often used due to the limited capacity of storage medium and/or the limited bandwidth of transmission medium. High data compression is usually lossy and often involves the transformation of the data into a different representation (such as the frequency domain). Such compression allocates the transmission or storage bits according to a subjective model. Audio encoders generally store higher frequencies with a lower bit-resolution than lower frequencies. Such subjective models have one or more of the following disadvantages (i) the encoding is computationally expensive, (ii) the models are prescriptive and forces the implementation of the decoding to follow a particular scheme that does not encourage the improvement of decoding technologies, and (iii) the encoding is block based which frequently causes artifacts such as pre-echo.